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The principal components of pyroligneous acid are acetic acid, acetone and methanol.
Last year I removed several clumps of timber bamboo, loaded it on a trailer and offered it to give away but got no takers. Eventually it dried well and I dug a trench wider at the top than the bottom with my tractor front-end loader and as long as the longest pieces.I started some on fire at the bottom and then began piling the bamboo on as fast as possible. It did expode frequently but within an hour it had all turned to coals and I quenched it with a large fire hose. The next day I removed then crushed the charcoal by driving over it on a concrete slab until it was fine grains or powder. The result was 300 gallons of fine biochar, enough for about 100 trees.I did soak the char in fish emulsion with micronutrients then added it to a large compost pile for a month. The key to making charcoal in an open pit is to get the fuel hot enough to create combustible vapors but keep the fire up above the pit which limits oxygen near the bottom of the pit. Without oxygen the fuel down low is less liable to burn into ashes.